Broken Ritual
by Luciana Surana
Summary: Morrigan's proposal left Alistair shaken, but not as shaken as Morrigan when she realises that she might not get the child she wanted... The characters, world and any other associations, apart from the storyline belong to BioWare.


**Greetings! This is my spin on the ending of Dragon Age: Origins, but I'm not going to say any more than that, PLEASE R&R! Thank you.**

Broken Ritual:

"Alistair, ther's something I really need to tell you," Laurel stated.

"Can't it wait? The battle with the Archdemon is imminent, we need to fully focus on it," Alistair replied.

"But-" She was cut off by Riordan's entrance into the room. He explained all about the sacrifice, the room fell silent, Laurel embraced Alistair and he kissed the top of her head.

"When the time comes I shall be the one to do it as I am the senior member of the Grey Wardens," Riordan stated. "But for now, you should get some rest," Laurel nodded and left the room to return to hers, to find Morrigan. Laurel soon discovered that she knows what happens to a Grey Warden when the Archdemon is slain. Before Laurel could ask her how she knew, Morrigan began to speak again, this time of a ritual. Laurel asked Morrigan frequent questions about what she would do with this child, there was an underlying sadness in her voice that she couldn't hide, after all she'd been through with Morrigan, she found an unlikely friendship, and she was going to leave her.

"I'll go find Alistair then," She resigned.

She returned with Alistair, a worried look in his eyes,

"You won't hate this quite as much as you think," Morrigan stated, Alistair seriously doubted it.

At the end of the long fought battle, Laurel ran towards a sword that had been embedded into a fallen soldier, wrenched it from the dead man and headed to the Archdemon, she drove the sword into it's head, a white light beamed from it's head. The Darkspawn was looking for a vessel, Morrigan gritted her teeth and awaited it to choose her, but the moment didn't come, she looked around but was knocked out by the explosion before she could see where it went.

Morrigan hadn't left, she decided to stay until she had closure. She woke up inside a bedroom in Redcliffe castle, she rubbed her eyes and stood up. she was dressed in a pale blue gown, she made a noise of disgust, tore it off and found her robes, she felt a lot more comfortable after putting them on, she walked down the hall, and saw Alistair standing outside a room with its door closed, he was looking at the floor, so he jumped when she walked towards him, and was even more shocked to see it was Morrigan.

"Wh- Why are you still here? Weren't you supposed to leave with-" He gulped, "My child?"

"I was, but something went wrong, the Darkspawn did not choose my child as it's vessel, I want to know what happened," She stated coldly.

"Well, then maybe you can help with my current predicament, well, Laurel's anyway," Alistair sighed, he opened the door, and there was Laurel, Morrigan almost didn't recognise her, she was emaciated and pale.

"How long was I out for?" Morrigan asked,

"Two days," Alistair replied. Laurel was sitting up in her bed, Morrigan was concerned.

"I was... Waiting for you to... Arrive," Laurel coughed.

"What on earth happened to you?" Morrigan asked her, concerned.

"That's... What I'd like to... Talk to you about," Laurel replied, "In private," Alistair nodded and left the room, shutting the door behind him. "I tried telling Alistair before the... Battle but he wouldn't listen... Even though you want to... Leave, you might want to stay... For nine months, at least," Laurel said. Morrigan's eyes widened,

"You? It's your child?" She asked, Laurel nodded slowly,

"And it is my gift to you... I wouldn't know how to look... After it properly, and it's what... You always wanted," She smiled weakly.

"You would do that, for me? Then you must have my child, something to remind you of me, when I'm gone," She replied, Laurel smiled.

"That sounds like a good idea... And you'll have something to remind... Me of you, but you might end up killing... The child if it's anything like Alistair," Morrigan and Laurel laughed, but not before she started coughing. "But let's keep this between... Us," Laurel said on a serious note. Morrigan nodded. She left the room abruptly and Alistair entered again, in the two days he'd hardly left her bedside, he was always there to comfort her when she needed him most. Laurel knew he would do anything for her.

* * *

Eight more months flew past, and Laurel went into labour, Alistair tried to stay and comfort her but he had passed out in the first hour. Morrigan was nowhere to be seen, in fact, she was in the Kocari Wilds at the time, giving birth to her child, every now and again a creature would stop by, but then quietly depart, leaving Morrigan defenseless and alone.

She and Laurel had devised a plan, when they had both given birth, they would leave Laurel alone with her childto get some rest, Morrigan would come in with a sleeping draught, and her child. They would swap them and no one would know, especially Alistair. Laurel felt slightly guilty about leaving Alistair out of the loop, and the fact that she was giving away her child, _their _child, and that she would never see him again. But as Morrigan promised, she had her child, and it was a beautiful baby girl. She looked into the child's eyes, they were golden, she frowned, she never got to see the colour of her child's eyes. Alistair entered the room, and smiled widely, there was a new found twinkle in his eye when Laurel handed him the child.

"What should we call her?" Laurel asked,

"Morrigan," Alistair replied,

"Wait, _you_ want to call her Morrigan? But... Why?" Laurel asked.

"When we thought that one of us was going to die, she gave us a way out, maybe I was wrong about her, we owe her that much, plus, she has the same eyes as her," He smiled warmly at the child.

"Okay, Morrigan it is," Laurel beamed, happy at the name choice. She swung her legs off the edge of the bed, she looked a lot healthier than she did all those months ago, her legs shook as she stood up, she grabbed onto Alistair's arm for support. He handed her back Morrigan and put his arm around her waist, helping her stand. Alistair kissed the top of her head, in this moment, they couldn't have felt happier.


End file.
